Forum - View topicINTEREST: Light Novel Author Explains the Lack of "Ugly" Characters In Manga, LNs
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
ChiilongCha
Posts: 37 |
|
|||||
There's way less of sexualization of female characters in today's works compared to decades ago, what are you talking about? |
||||||
|
||||||
Hal14
 Posts: 708 Location: Heart of africa |
|
|||||
|
^^^^
I could be mistaken but I think that's exactly what @badnewsblues is talking about. I've personally seen this sentiment in comic forums that the less oversexualized designs are inherently/intentionally ugly. A good example I can think of would be She-hulk. For a while, she was redrawn to be much bulkier and monstrous (to match the shift in the character's personality) compared to the amazon cover girl that she usually looks like. Naturally, you can imagine how well this decision was received and it's no surprise that the status quo has returned. Like others here said: "ugly" characters are just not popular, or as popular. If a main or recurring character is "ugly" then it's probably an informed attribute: like The Thing in Fantastic Four. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
AmpersandsUnited
Posts: 633 |
|
|||||
They're both issues, albeit separate but not wholly unrelated ones. The reason people hated on characters like Abby in the Last of Us 2 not because she isn't prancing around in a bikini or booty shorts, but because people didn't like her appearance. Suddenly sexualizing characters like that wouldn't really fix much if people didn't find them attractive to begin with. Genshin Impact was hit with a huge censorship wave in China with the last patch and covered up the skin of some of the girls, but the girls still look cute and attractive as they always do, they just don't show off their thighs or cleavage as much anymore. You can be attractive without being sexualized, but there's also a huge push for more issues like breaking conventional beauty standards in designing characters or casting actors. The later is especially apparent in Eastern markets where you hear a lot of extremely harsh remarks on the appearance of certain actors in recent films they're not a fan of and they have no fear of being very open about it. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Psajdak
|
|
|||||
|
Cruel truth: People want to see nice, and beautiful things.
|
||||||
|
MrTerrorist
Posts: 1348 |
|
|||||
|
That's funny considering H manga artist of certain genres have no problem in drawing ugly characters.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
earl.m
|
|
|||||
Truthfully speaking there are plenty of unattractive characters in manga, light novels and anime. The issue is that the ones that appear are almost always villains, including but not limited to monsters, ghosts etc. (see Mieruko-Chan were a ton of effort and resources went into animating the grotesque-looking ghosts for what was otherwise a low budget effort). So is this a request for more unattractive or simply plain heroes and main characters? OK ... who wants this and why? Let me guess: the sort of people who do the "fixing anime girls" thing on social media. Or who give glowing reviews to things like "I Am Not Starfire." Yeah ... catering to that very tiny market will result in bankruptcy. |
||||||
|
TexZero
Posts: 587 |
|
|||||
|
Ah so the author is basically saying why create a niche like UB when vanilla sells and takes far less effort.
This explains the industry tackling the same genre for 10+ years before trying something new. Gotta milk that cow until it's dead. |
||||||
|
||||||
capt_bunny
 Posts: 364 |
|
|||||
|
Makes sense. It's said symmetry is known to show beauty and those who don't like moles or disfigure faces coats a lot more plus having to remember all of lines to add. Yes, eye candy does sell a lot. However, any artist knows how hard it is in drawing expressions and reversing the canvas.
It's a shame though. I do like "ugly" characters because it shows a lot of diversity. I like seeing all types of characters. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6239 |
|
|||||
Naito Longchamp and Masaru Aoki I presume :S Jokes aside there’s a market for this stuff niche as it maybe just like there’s a market for things like Plus Size Elf and other similar works involving females with some meat on their bones. People have different kinks and fetishes.
In my defense I don’t read much shoujo & Josei to be honest. But historically and traditionally it’s more of a problem to objectify females in media than males but yeah both can be problems.
After about 3-4 years and people using this creative decision the bash the writers and artists for somehow not knowing/respecting the character’s history eventhough bulkier/gonk She Hulk is actually apart of the character’s history which these same people apparently don’t know about. You also were right about the original point I made. But for further clarification I was harping on the notion that there’s this hatred of attractive character design in the west which there isn’t just like there isn’t hatred of Sony upon Japanese developers & Publishers which is another absurd complaint you see in some circles decrying the how much less fanservice you see in some mediums. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
catandmouse
Posts: 219 |
|
|||||
|
To me it’s a matter of aesthetics. I like staring at pretty drawings, but art is in the eye of the beholder as well.
There are some artists who are said to have nice art and I just don’t care for their style and I’m sure there are some artists art I think is nice that others don’t. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
IceLeaf
Posts: 146 |
|
|||||
|
Why would you waste time making unattractive characters when attractive characters sell much better?
With how tight the weekly series mangakas already have to grind to get their chapters out on time how can you expect them to put in extra time to please a small portion of the audience. While it might not seem like it would take much extra time to draw the character, depending on their prominence in the series it can add to up to a lot for the 20-30 pages they have to draw a week especially if they appear in multiple panels each page. I remember in the author's notes in several series I've read them saying why the characters outfits and hairstyles change was because it took them too long to draw so frequently that they decided to change it. Easing the burden requires hiring (more) assistants which would save time but cost more money. With how quickly some series get cut, is it even worth it to have an unattractive main cast member when it just places more risk on the author? If you want to see more diverse cast designs you are better off looking at monthly series but they don't get the amount of hype internationally as weekly ones do unless they get an anime, because the general public doesn't have the patience to wait a month to get the next part. And not as many get simulpub translations so it often takes 6 months to a year for a new volume to come out by which time you have already seen spoilers |
||||||
|
||||||
Mizuki-Takashima
 Posts: 215 |
|
|||||
|
I totally get what the author is saying from a logistical perspective, and explaining the current trends and stuff, but damn the shallowness in this thread is hard to read as an uggo myself lmao
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
Minos_Kurumada
Posts: 1174 |
|
|||||
|
Manga it's a cheap art style designed to be efficient by Osamu Tezuka who needed a cheap an efficient way to tell his histories in the post war Japan.
The autor just takes some basic designs and copies again and again during the work, most of the time we are needed to be told which characters are more beautiful than the rest because there is no visible difference. This is a normal problem I have with romcoms, with the MC in love with the "Most beautiful girl in the school" I am like "She looks the same as every other girl in this damn series". Thus, as far as we know, characters not complemented by their looks are average looking. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
maximilianjenus
Posts: 2894 |
|
|||||
|
After over two decades of consuming japanese media, i just assume all characters are average looking, the if someone in media says a character is ugly i assume the character is ugly and same for the hot looking ones. saves me a lot of headaches even if i sometimes find the fandom weird, but then again i have had enough time to get used to the latest.
using at for example, Mikasa and Crista are hot, in media Chara tera said so. Levi is just an average guy, nobody says otherwise in universe, which makes all those fans saying that Levi is hot kinda weird but to each their own. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
クズオタク
Posts: 36 |
|
|||||
You can say whatever you want but...I think there is nothing wrong with Josuke. |
||||||
|
||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group